Due to unfortunate circumstances (me dropping the laptop) I have now ended up with a half broken laptop that has a broken screen and a dying battery. I could repair it, however, I don’t wanna bother as I’m very likely gonna be getting a new one soon.
The laptop itself still works fine, however the broken screen and dying battery make it pretty much useless as a laptop and I already have a home lab NAS thing, so I’m kinda out of ideas on what to do with it. Any ideas?
Here are the specs:
CPU: i5-8300h
GPU: intel HD830/GTX1050ti
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 128GB SSD
Services: DNS (Pi-Hole for example), DHCP, or NTP, off the top of my head.
Already got all of that from a VM off my homelab
Sounds like you’re looking for a solution you already know the answer to; recycle the laptop if you’re not going to repair it.
It would bug me a ton if I were to recycle it, as it still technically works, it’s just not worth repairing, as the total cost pretty much equals getting the same one, but working, 2nd hand…
I get that and I’ve been there, but it sounds like you have an existing homelab that can do most of what someone else might do with a broken laptop.
What ideas did you have?
And recycle it could mean wipe the drive and donate it to someplace that will recondition it and give it to someone who needs a computer for school/work but can’t afford one.
Thing is, it’s gonna need a lot more than a “recondition” to get it back to a “usable as a laptop” status. New screen, new battery, new bottom panel (yeah, that). And I do have some ideas of how to get extra use out of it, occasionally, as my homelab isn’t particularly powerful, I just wanted to get a 2nd opinion about it.
Got it.
Then do what you’re thinking about doing with it :)
Install Proxmox on it and it could be a second node for anything that you want.
Web server for a Smart Mirror?
https://magicmirror.builders/
I run my mirror locally, but you can also pull it from a separate server.